


The 1st of July

by memorizingthedigitsofpi



Series: A June Wedding [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Marriage Proposal, Romance, probably the only proposal fic I'll ever write, so I figured I might as well have him ask her a million times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-05-16 08:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5820598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memorizingthedigitsofpi/pseuds/memorizingthedigitsofpi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the ending of A June Wedding, this is what happens on the 1st of July.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just needed some more fluff in my life, and I guess I'm not ready to let go of this universe just yet :) I hope you like it!

Jemma sighed and rolled her head back and forth on her shoulders. Not only was she in a bad mood over having been sent to this conference at the last minute to present in Dr. Folliat's place, she was almost 10 hours into a journey that should have taken 4.

First, the ticket hadn't been changed to her name, and then, once that had finally got sorted out, the flight that she was supposed to have been on had been oversold and she got bumped to a later flight. _That_ one had been first delayed and then cancelled due to maintenance issues. Now, here she was, stomach grumbling due to too much running around and not enough eating lunch (or dinner!), faced with a half-finished presentation and absolutely abysmal notes.

Shifting around in her uncomfortable, economy-class seat, she sighed again and closed her laptop. She was in no mood to be working right now. She'd just have to do her best to cobble something together after she finally reached her hotel.

She was just considering ringing the bell for the flight attendant to ask for something for her headache when her phone vibrated on her tray table. Frowning, she picked it up and looked at the message on her screen.

A wide grin spread across her face as she read it and remembered that evening three months before in Fitz's flat when she'd set the reminder. He'd been joking around yet again about her moving into his apartment with him. It has been a common conversation between them for some time at that point. They'd been dating for six months and spent more time sleeping at each other's apartments than they did sleeping apart.

Jemma wrinkled her brow as she tried to remember the last time she'd spent a night without Fitz, aside from work trips like this one. There was that nasty head cold that had been going around and...

She startled as her phone vibrated again and another reminder popped up. But she had only put in the one, hadn't she?

This time the smile that spread across her face was slow and sweet. She couldn't help the little jump in her heartbeat when she remembered the first time he'd said it. He'd jumbled the words horribly in his nervousness, sounding more like Yoda than a man in love.

"Y-you I-I-I-I l-love," he'd stammered, looking at her with such complete sincerity, she'd almost burst into a million pieces with all of the feelings rushing through her.

Even now, she could feel her chest swelling with emotion at the idea that Fitz, wonderful Fitz, brilliant Fitz, handsome Fitz loved _her_.

She touched his smiling, winking face on her phone's wallpaper, wishing she could touch the real thing. And then another reminder popped up.

Jemma blinked, not at all sure what this one was about. Wasn't _Fitz_ the one asking _her_ to move in? Why had he set up a reminder for _her_ to do the convincing? She tried to puzzle through that one, finally concluding that he must have decided to make some sort of a joke in between those reminders that would make her annoyed enough to do the asking for him.

The prat.

She smiled again at how well he knew her, and how well she knew him.

This one just made no sense at all! First she's telling him that moving in together is their next logical step, and now she's arguing against it?

Not for the first time in this, for lack of a better word, conversation, Jemma wished she were at home with Fitz now so that she could hear his half of it. Although, considering he'd scripted her side for her, she supposed both halves were his.

Her eyes narrowed in annoyance at the realization.

"Hah!" she scoffed to herself, perhaps a bit too loudly. "Sorry," she said more quietly to the man in the seat next to her whom she'd just jolted out of a doze. "Didn't mean to wake you," she said with a wan smile. He harumphed ill-temperedly and pulled his sleeping mask back over his face. Apparently, he was going to deal with the frustrations of economy class travel by sleeping the entire flight.

Jemma was just thinking that might be the best way to go about it when her phone buzzed again. "Really, Fitz?" she sighed and rolled her eyes. She was sure this would have been adorable in person, but with her currently 30,000ft in the air and traveling rapidly _away_ from him, it left a lot to be desired.

"Oh, Fitz?" she whispered in mild confusion. How in the world was she supposed to predict _anything_ when he was giving her such mixed messages. Literally! The man could be so frustrating at times! Why couldn't he just have a normal conversation with her, with _words_ and _gestures_ and _being in the same geographical location_?

Although she supposed that last bit wasn't exactly his fault. He'd been supposed to be cooking her dinner tonight at his place before they binge-watched Firefly on Netflix, but that plan had backfired this morning when she'd been called at the last minute to fill in for Dr. Folliat who was going in for an emergency appendectomy.

She supposed she couldn't really fault him for not knowing that whenever it was that he'd programmed these reminders into her phone.

Jemma was just coming around to thinking the messages were sweet again when another one popped up in front of her. This one made her catch her breath and look around in excited confusion. He didn't mean...? Did he mean...??

"Oh my god!" Jemma said under her breath. "Oh my-" she tried to stand up in her seat, but her safety belt pulled her back down. With desperate fingers, she released the catch and then tapped desperately on the businessman's shoulder until he gruffly acknowledged her. "I have to-" she gestured toward the aisle. He read in her expression the kind of hurry that you didn't want to get in the way of, and he quickly got up to allow her to pass through.

"Excuse me?" Jemma said, waving wildly to get a flight attendant's attention. " _Excuse me?_ " She hurried her way down the aisle to the end of plane, her agitation plain for the rest of the passengers to see. "Please!" she said, interrupting a conversation between the three flight attendants about the dinner service.

"Yes, ma'am?" asked one of them, her customer service face firmly in place.

"I need to make a phone call," Jemma said quickly. "Immediately. It's an emergency!"

"Calm down, ma'am," she said patiently. "Everything's alright."

"No it's not!" Jemma shook her head adamantly. "I need to call Fitz. I need to call him _right now!_ "

Looking behind her at the rest of the passengers, the flight attendant decided to move her out of sight before other people started getting upset.

"Alright, ma'am," she said calmly. "We have a sat. phone on board. If you'll just remain calm, I'm sure we can get you connected."

"Please hurry!" Jemma urged, biting her lip. "Oh, he must be so upset!"

With the phone in her hands, Jemma was embarrassed to find that her fingers were shaking too badly to dial, so the flight attendant had to press the buttons for her.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized, starting to calm down now that she knew she'd be able to talk to Fitz. "It's just, I have to tell him!"

"Tell him what?" the flight attendant asked. But just then, Jemma heard Fitz's familiar voice answer the phone with a curious "Hello?"

" _Yes_!" she burst out, not able to keep the word inside her any longer.

"Jemma?" Fitz asked, surprised to hear her voice.

"Yes, yes, _yes!_ " Jemma laughed, a sob bubbling up from the back of her throat.

"Wait," Fitz said, his voice filled with tension. "Do you mean... _yes_?" he asked, and she could hear him holding his breath.

" _Yes!_ " Jemma shouted, jumping up and down and nodding her head as she felt tears spill out from her eyes, as if she was so filled with joy that it was overflowing from her.

On the other end of the line, Fitz whooped out an incoherent shout of happiness and then there was a rattling sound and some muffled scrabbling. "Sorry!" he panted. "Dropped the phone there for a second."

Jemma was smiling so wide that her face hurt, but she just couldn't stop.

"You really mean it?" Fitz asked, just to be sure.

"I really do," Jemma confirmed.

"I love you," Fitz whispered, and she could hear the longing in his voice.

"I love you, too," she whispered back, wishing so much that she could see him and hold him and kiss him in this moment.

"And when you get back, I'm going to take a do-over," Fitz chuckled. "I'll do it again, and it'll be perfect and romantic and I'll sweep you off your feet!"

Jemma laughed back, wiping the tears from her eyes as she continued to smile. "It already is, and you already did," she said.

"Ma'am," the flight attendant said not unkindly, touching her wrist to get her attention. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but the Captain has put the seatbelt sign on. We're hitting some turbulence."

Jemma nodded and drew in a shaky breath. "I've got to go now, Fitz," she said in a steadier voice than she would have expected. "But I'll be home again in four days' time, and I'll tell you again in person."

"You'll tell me 'yes'?" Fitz teased.

"I'll tell you 'yes'," Jemma grinned.

"Love you."

"You too."

Back in her seat and buckled up safely, Jemma stared at her phone and continued to smile.


	2. Chapter 2

Fitz sighed and dropped down onto the sofa, turning on the TV and queuing up Netflix. He looked at the empty seat next to him and cursed Dr. Folliat's terrible organs for sending Jemma away from him on today of all days.

He blew out another sigh and took the black velvet box out of his pocket. With a glum expression, he placed it on the arm of the sofa and spun it around a few times. He was trying to take it philosophically. Not doing it today didn't mean not doing it ever, after all. It just meant he'd have to think of a new _way_ to do it.

He'd been particularly proud of himself for this brainwave.

It had occurred to him months before, about a week after he'd received his mum's wedding invitation in the mail. The invite had sparked a conversation between the two of them about marriage and they'd concluded that they both wanted to move in that direction, albeit at different speeds. He, of course, wanted to head to City Hall the following day and get it done. Jemma, however, had a five year plan in mind.

He was sort of hoping that an actual ring might help them compromise. Hopefully closer to _his_ timeline than hers.

He'd looked all over in search of the perfect ring. A sapphire instead of a diamond, first of all, because that was Jemma's favourite stone. Then, it should be something classic, antique, the kind of ring Peggy Carter might wear. And the stone should be inset rather than mounted because he didn't want her to have to take it off when she was putting on gloves at work. After visiting almost every jeweler and antique store in the city, he finally found it.

He opened the box for the millionth time, trying to reassure himself that Jemma would like it. He was _almost_ sure that she would.

He really hoped she would.

God, what if she didn't?

He shook his head and closed the box and tried to concentrate on choosing something to watch, but then his phone vibrated in his pocket.

Oh no. No no no. No no no no no. Noooooooooooo.

Fitz stood up in a panic, sending his bowl of pretzels flying and spreading snack food all over the floor.

He'd forgotten to take the reminders off of her phone!

He ran toward the kitchen, then back into the living room, then over to the window all while holding onto his phone and swearing at his own stupidity.

How could he have forgotten?

Sure, Jemma's trip had come up at the last possible minute, and yes they'd barely had time to get her to the airport let alone for him to fiddle with her phone without her noticing, but still! She was going to know! And he wouldn't be able to ask her to her face! And she wouldn't be able to see him! Or the ring! And there wouldn't be any kissing!

Of course, if the answer was no, this might be for the best, but...

Oh god. Now that he was seeing the conversation play out and remembering what he'd put into her phone, he was suddenly regretting the whole thing. What had he even been thinking? Proposing via iPhone reminders? Who did that? Just because she'd thought the thing with Siri had been cute?

He cringed and buried his face in his hands. This was a disaster.

Seeing the messages pop up on his phone, they suddenly seemed childish and petulant. Like he was complaining that she didn't want to marry him. He knew that she _did_ want to, just not yet. Why was he trying to pressure her into it? They were happily dating and on the cusp of moving in together. Why did they need to get engaged? How would that change anything? This whole thing was a mistake, but she was up in the air somewhere impossible to reach her, so he couldn't even call her to apologize.

His mouth quirked into a smile over that one. That was the argument he always came back to, and her counter was always that since they _agreed_ they were together forever, that signing a piece of paper and wearing a piece of metal around their fingers wasn't going to change that.

He winced when he remembered the reminder in _her_ phone.

She probably wouldn't appreciate him suggesting she concede his point.

Honestly, if they got to the end of this and she hadn't actually _dumped_ him, he'd probably be doing well.

One good thing about this whole situation is that he hadn't actually decided whether or not to go down on one knee. He thought he'd feel like a pillock if he did, but there was the chance that Jemma would find the gesture romantic. If, of course, she didn't find it hilarious.

It really _was_ too bad this wasn't happening according to plan. She might have said yes if she'd seen him standing/kneeling there with a ring in his hand.

Stranger things had happened.

He'd still been working on his speech the day before. It was hard to do without Jemma catching on, though, so he'd claimed he was reviewing an article for a friend of his in Xian who had a specialty that Jemma couldn't help with.

Even still, she'd been entirely too curious, so he'd had to actually get an article from him to appease her.

He breathed out a laugh. How could you _not_ love a woman like that?

His laugh turned to a groan and he leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling. What a disaster. He was never going to live this down. Worst proposal in the history of proposals. Worst proposal _ever_.

He was about five seconds away from banging his head against the nearest wall when his phone started ringing in his hand. He looked at the number and had no idea who could be calling, but he answered it anyway.

"Hello?" he asked curiously.

" _Yes!_ " burst a familiar voice, loud enough to do damage to his eardrum.

"Jemma?" he asked. How in the world was she calling him? She was supposed to be mid-flight right now.

"Yes, yes, _yes!_ " she repeated, and it sounded like she was either laughing or crying. He couldn't quite tell which.

Suddenly it occurred to him what she might be saying 'yes' _about_.

"Wait," he said, holding his breath. "Do you mean... _yes_?" Was she actually...? Did she mean...? Was it seriously possible that Jemma Simmons was saying-

" _Yes_!"

He shouted out an incoherent whoop of joy and threw his phone in the air in celebration. Then his eyes widened in horror as he realized what he'd done. He tried to catch it, but it bounced off his palm and hit the coffee table before sliding off onto the floor, and he scrabbled after it desperately. If he broke his phone right now, he'd literally explode.

"Sorry!" he panted into the phone after he'd managed to get a hold of it again. "Dropped the phone there for a second."

His heart was near to bursting with happiness and the whole thing felt like some sort of a dream. Jemma was going to marry him. She was going to marry him and be his _wife_ and they were going to be together forever.

"You really mean it?" he asked, not quite able to believe she wanted to.

"I really do," she said, and he could hear the smile on her face, that smile he loved so much.

"I love you," he whispered, wishing he could see her. He just wanted to see that smile and hold her in his arms and kiss her and love her for the rest of his life.

"I love you, too," she whispered back, and even after all these months it was still amazing to hear her say it.

"And when you get back," he chuckled, ''I'm going to take a do-over. I'll do it again, and it'll be perfect and romantic and I'll sweep you off your feet!" Maybe the top of the Empire State Building? Or fly her to Paris? Or buy her a star? Or reserve an entire restaurant so it was just the two of them? His mind raced with possibilities.

"It already is," she said. "And you already did."

He was the luckiest man in the world. Hands down.

"I've got to go now, Fitz," she said after someone spoke to her for a moment. "But I'll be home again in four days' time, and I'll tell you again in person."

Four days. Plenty of time to plan something better. He'd give her the proposal she really deserved.

"You'll tell me 'yes'?" he asked with a wide grin, just wanting to hear her say it again.

"I'll tell you 'yes'," she confirmed, and his smile widened so big it hurt his face.

"Love you," he said, already counting down the hours til she was back in his arms again.

"You too," she said.

Alone in his apartment, Fitz looked at the pretzels all over the floor, half-crushed by his mad dashing about, and he started whistling as he went in search of his broom.

He had four days til he could propose to her again, and he couldn't wait to kiss her when she said yes.


	3. Chapter 3

Fitz hummed to himself as he scanned various websites for deals on hotels and flight tickets. He'd cross-references romantic getaways with interesting flora and fauna and come up with the perfect proposal destination:

Jemma was going to love it.

He got a faraway look in his eyes as he pondered whether or not she might own a bikini. Or if he could convince her to buy one. Maybe in red?

Swallowing hard at that mental image, he clicked through the checkout and grinned broadly at the immediate appearance of the confirmation email in his inbox.

Closing down his laptop, he stretched and got ready for bed. Two days down, two to go. He still had a lot of planning to do.

* * *

Jemma closed the door quietly behind her and breathed out a sigh of relieved relaxation.

She still couldn't believe she'd managed to pull her presentation together almost literally overnight. It had taken all of her mental faculties and every last ounce of her concentration to get it done in time, but she had. And it had been _extremely_ well-received.

She pressed her lips together in an attempt to stop her smile, then gave up and let it spread over her face. She was alone. No one would know.

As she moved her bag away from the door, she slipped her keys into her bag. When her hand came back out again, she looked at it in the dim light coming in through the window and wondered what kind of ring Fitz had bought and what it would look like on her finger.

She didn't normally wear rings. Would it feel strange?

She really hoped it was pretty.

What was the etiquette involved if you wanted to say yes to the proposal and no to the ring?

She frowned and suddenly wished she'd spent any time at all researching proposals and what to do with various extenuating circumstances.

Worrying her bottom lip because of her sudden nerves, she felt her way through the suite to the bedroom in the darkness.

As she stood by the bed, she smiled. Even if it was the ugliest ring she'd ever seen, she'd still think it was beautiful because Fitz bought it for her. He bought it for her _to propose_.

She quickly got changed for bed and slipped under the covers.

She couldn't wait to see his face when she said yes.

* * *

Fitz batted a hand at his alarm clock and scrubbed at his eyes. God, mornings were just the _worst,_ weren't they?

He groaned as he stretched, working out the slight stiffness of sleep, but his groan cut off before it was completed.

"Jemma?" he asked, looking at her in horror.

"Mmm?" she said a bit blearily. Then she smiled up at him as she blinked the sleep out of her eyes. "Yes?" she said, her smile growing wider.

"You're here!" he said, stating the obvious because he was totally confused.

"Yes," she agreed, nodding and obviously trying not to laugh.

"Early!" he continued, still processing what was happening.

"Yes," she said, as if she were saying the most obvious thing in the world. Which he supposed she was.

"Did you leave the conference early?" he asked, brows drawn together in a frown. She wasn't being all that forthcoming with information this morning for some reason.

" _Yes_ ," she said, her brows raised and looking at him with a significance he didn't understand.

"Why?" he asked, completely flummoxed. He was supposed to have two more days to prepare for this!

Jemma rolled her eyes and pulled him to her for a kiss. "Because I couldn't wait another minute to get back here and say **yes** ," she said.

God, he was an idiot.

* * *

Jemma's smile bloomed across her face again as Fitz's face was covered in a goofy grin.

"Say it again?" he asked, propping his head up on his hand and looking down at her where she still lay down on her back. His other hand reached out to her hip and pulled her a bit closer.

"Say what?" she teased, trying and failing to look innocent.

"You're a terrible liar," he said, and his eyes were moving all over her face and she'd never felt more beautiful. Or more loved.

"Ask me again," she whispered, heart beating faster. "Ask me, and I'll say it."

"Jemma Simmons?" he whispered back, leaning down to kiss her. "Will you do me the honour," he kissed her again. "Of agreeing to marry me?" he kissed her again. "And make me the happiest man on the face of the earth?" He kissed her one last time, pouring all of his love for her out through his lips, and it took her breath away.

"Yes," she breathed. Then she pulled him down and kissed his breath away too.

* * *

Half an hour and some cardio-related activity later, they lay on their sides, holding hands and grinning at each other.

"So, it's official?" Fitz asked, still not quite believing that the most brilliant, kind, funny, beautiful woman in the entire universe had somehow agreed to be his wife.

And for some unknown reason, she was looking at him like she couldn't believe how lucky she was, either. "I don't know that it's _officially_ official without a ring," she grinned.

Fitz's heart caught in his throat and he swallowed hard.

"I've got one," he admitted, lifting her left hand to his lips and kissing her ring finger. "If you want it, that is," he teased.

"I'll let you know after I see it," Jemma teased back.

The nerves in his stomach multiplied at a seemingly exponential rate when she said that, but he forced them to calm down. She'd said yes to marrying him. It was alright if she wanted a different ring.

He really hoped she didn't want a different ring. He'd tried so hard to find her one she'd like.

Rolling away from her, he leaned over the side of the bed and scooped his jeans off the floor. After a moment's digging around, he pulled the black velvet box out of his pocket and then, with a deep, fortifying breath, he turned back and showed it to her.

* * *

Jemma's breath caught in her throat when he opened the box and revealed its contents. 

"It's beautiful," she whispered, reaching a hand out to touch it before pulling back. "Can I?" she asked, looking up at him, a bit in awe.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Fitz answered with a crooked smile.

And then he was pulling the ring out of its pillowy niche and pulling her left hand towards him and looking into her eyes as he slid it onto her finger.

"Say it again?" he asked quietly.

And as beautiful as the ring was, she couldn't look away from his face.

"Yes," she nodded, looking into his eyes. "Yes," she said again as she curled her hand around the back of his neck. "Yes," she said one more time as she pulled his face close and pressed her lips to his.

Fitz would always and forever be her favourite word in the universe, but Yes was now running a close second.


End file.
